Kasese on Ebola alert

According to WHO, the Health Ministry in the Democratic Republic of Congo said in August that two samples taken from a remote village in the North-western province of Equateur had tested positive for the deadly virus, but added that the infections were from a different strain than the one that has killed more than 1,400 people in four West African countries

Kasese district has been put on Ebola alert following reports that the disease had so far killed 13 people in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo.Kasese district leadership has directed all Health facilities in the area especially those along the Uganda-DR Congo common border to be on the alert of any suspicious cases.A Health Inspector with Kasese District local government, Mr Samuel Kabunga on Monday told a District Health Assembly that the ministry of health had confirmed that Ebola had been reported in the Equatorial Province of the DRC where 13 people were reported dead.

"Dr. Bwire in the Ministry of Health has confirmed the occurrence of Ebola in the Equatorial Province of the DR Congo. So that is why we must be on alert because we share a lot along the border", Kabunga said.But participants at the Conference who included Health Inspectors from all the sub-counties of Kasese, the NGOs and CBOs representatives dealing in health issues, in-charges of government health units and representatives of faith based Health Organizations, sounded an immediate need for protective gears in preparation for any suspicious cases.The administrator at the government owned Bwera Hospital, Mr Pedson Buthalha said that the Hospital staff and patients were last month hit by panic when a suspicious case from the DRC was brought at the facility."We almost failed on what to do. We just risked. By the time I arrived at the Hospital, the nurses had touched the sick man who had almost all signs of Ebola. But luckily enough, it was not Ebola", Mr Buthalha said.Buthalha also said that the only government hospital in the district has no Isolation Ward."When we received that suspicious case, we just found a small tent and erected it outside other Wards and used it as an isolation ward from where we monitored the patient", said Mr Buthalha.

A representative of the Rwenzururu Kingdom at the conference, Dr. John Baluku who is the minister in-charge of Disaster preparedness in the cultural institution called for intensive sensitization especially in Mpondwe/Lhubiriha town council which is at the Uganda-DRC border."Thousands of our people from all corners of East Africa and from deep inside the DRC vend at the border market at Kasindi Mpondwe. So we must go there and sensitise all of them because we cannot close the market", Mr Balukusaid.

Utility

According to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, the 2014 Ebola outbreak is one of the largest Ebola outbreaks in history and the first in West Africa. It is affecting four countries in West Africa: Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone.

According to WHO, the Health Ministry in the Democratic Republic of Congo said in August that two samples taken from a remote village in the North-western province of Equateur had tested positive for the deadly virus, but added that the infections were from a different strain than the one that has killed more than 1,400 people in four West African countries.